Believe Something Better Commentary Series

Notes and Outlines

/ RB May IV / Leave a comment

OK, everyone, we are planning for the future!

To that end the Believe Something Better Page has been updated! You can now see a little of what we are planning with it. We plan on having the Notes and Outlines (free material we’re providing) up and available for download. This coupled with the BOGV provides a kind of study bible experience. We hope to have these study notes completely available over the course of the next two years. You’ll get to see the page evolve as more content is finished.

We are currently working on the finishing touches to 1 John-Jude, the first volume which will be made available in the Believe Something Better Commentary Series. We are really excited to be getting so close to actually making something available and having fruit for labors.

In this we want to give all the glory to God. We can do nothing through our own strength and only God is the one with the strength who has accomplished this!

Pray for us as we continue to move forward with this goal of finishing the series of commentaries and for volunteers. We are actively seeking volunteers to get involved in the Ministry. If you feel as though you would like to be involved please e-mail us. We are also open to taking donations please e-mail us about this option as well.

Thank you so much!
RB

August 2017 Update

/ RB May IV / Leave a comment

Hey everyone, I want to be better about posting updates here. We’re looking for volunteers currently in a number of places; not just here but also at BOG Ministries. If you would like to get involved in our ministry here, we have a multitude of positions we would love to fill. We are looking at expanding our scope a little bit and we would love your help as we do so.

We are moving forward with so many things. I do plan on having the next episode of the BSB Vidcast/Podcast out this month – most likely very close to the end of the month. I am continuing work on the Believe Something Better Commentary series and I think we are on track for the first volume (though in actuality it looks as though it will be the 55th volume in order of Biblical layout) to be finished by November with subsequent publish in December or January. I am currently finishing up Second John and will be moving on to work on Third John soon. I am rather excited about this whole thing. It always feels good to have some fruit from your labors.

I am hoping to actually put out the eBook of the of the Psalms by RB and I hope to be putting out the second set soon. I enjoy poetry and write it as my mind wanders. I hope you enjoy it too.

All in all, I am hard at work and the BOG team is hard at work. Currently the work for the BOG team is the Gospel of John and after I am finished working on 1 John – Jude I will be putting together a short amount of info to go along with John in order to have an outreach book available. This would be BOG Ministries’ first piece of work in print and we have the same feeling as I stated above, fruits from our labor.

Pray for us as we continue down the road, running the race which is laid before us. We look forward to hearing from any of you who wish to get in touch. Our e-mail lines are always open. Feel free to e-mail us when ever you want!

—
RB

Update – July 2017

/ RB May IV / Leave a comment

Hello everyone, I am just wanting to give a quick update. We’ve been rather sparse this year on the number of updates. I have to admit I have been really busy so far this season and I’ve been rather preoccupied. This does not mean I am doing nothing. We are hoping to bring out the first official volume of the Believe Something Better Commentary Series this Fall/Winter. This Volume will encompass 1 John – Jude. I believe in actual numbers, though being the first one published once everything is said and done it will be the 53rd volume in the series.

I am hoping to move onto James, or 1 & 2 Peter after 1 John – Jude is finished. We will have to wait and see what the Lord provides in this. I am currently reading my NIV Study Bible which my parents gave me years ago.

Don’t forget to connect with us on Facebook, or send us an e-mail. We look forward to hearing from everyone! As always prayer requests are welcome and keep us in your prayers!

Update and 2016 Prayer Challenge Final

/ RB May IV / Leave a comment

Well everyone, today I am bringing you the final update on my 2016 Prayer Challenge which I undertook last year. It was 366 days which taught me so much. The Lord really showed me so much through out my days of prayer. The very fist thing I learned is the blessings which come from being proactive in our relationship with God rather than reactive. This was so important because most of the time our relationship with God is reactive, something happened so we pray about it.

When this dynamic changes and we enter a paradigm where we are being proactive (actively seeking God first) we start to see how this relationship edifies every part of our lives. I am hoping to scan the 366 days worth of prayer journal entries, but am not making any promises. I’ve also apologize I know in the original post about the challenge I am supposed to type up the entries and post them as a PDF, but after trying I have come to realize I just really don’t have the time.

The other things which I learned was how vast the chasm is between the trials we go through and how we view those trials. I went through some hard times with friends this last year and through the prayer life I had with the Lord this last year I was able to thank Him for the blessings I was receiving as I grew through these trials. My friends were viewing the problems totally as negative, but I was able to look at the positive, because the Lord opened my eyes.

I have a few updates on the projects which I am working on: Breath of God Ministries is coming under the leadership of Believe Better Ministries. This does not mean the goal for BOG Ministries is going to change any, but rather it will just be under the headship of Believe Better Ministries, who will hold the publishing rights to the BOGV.

I am continuing hard at work with my study of the word and the production of the BSB Commentary series and am hoping to finish 1 – 3 John this year. This would finish off the first volume in the series. (1 John – Jude).

We are also still collecting stories from those who wish to participate in the Experiencing Something Better. We look forward to hearing from you all.

That is all for now we hope you all had a good January and February!

—
RB

Updates and Missed Past Events

/ RB May IV / Leave a comment

Well,

I must apologize to all of you for the lack of content being made available on our website recently. I’ve been working hard and have completely forgotten to post anything here. It has almost been two months since and update and I am sorry. Currently there are a few projects on my plate. Firstly (of course) we have the Believe Something Better Commentary Series. I am currently working on the Commentary on First John and it hope to move onto Second John soon. This is taking a lot of work and I am having to put a lot of effort into it. It has taken most of my focus recently.

Second I am putting more feelers out for the ESB Project (if you don’t know what that is you can read about it on this post). We are still looking for anyone and everyone who would like to help with this project in any way. You can e-mail us at Contact@BelieveBetterMinistries.com. Even if you just have questions about the project you can e-mail us.

Third the book of poems, which was talked about here, is actually starting to look as though it will be ready for publish soon. We have been putting a lot of work into the book and are getting ready to launch it. We hope you will enjoy it.

Finally I’ve been continuing the prayer challenge for the year and took a picture which I forgot to post on Sunday. Sunday was the 290th day of 2016 so I wanted to post a picture with my checklist and prayer journal. Here it is: 20161016_154653
That is what I’ve been spending a lot of time focused on prayer and my Bible recently. I hope to have an update soon. Keep your eyes peeled!

—
RB

A Few Finished Items

/ RB May IV / Leave a comment

Well as we are working on new projects. I am have specifically moved onto working on 1 John and am working on the study notes and commentary of this epistle. With that happening we are looking back at a few of our projects which have already finished (at least as far as the extent of the project was concerned). The first was Jude. You can see our post about Jude here, but there is also a part of this project which you may not know about. The second is Obadiah. We have made a commentary and study notes of these two books. These study notes which were made available as part of the Commentary Project were also given to Breath of God Ministries which were added to the BOGV (and here Paraphrase) as part of the Breath of God Study Bible.  You can get a taste of this Study Bible in both Old and New Testaments (with Obadiah and Jude, respectively) in BOG Ministries’ most recent post.

We hope you enjoy.
RB

The Epistle of Jude – Believe Something Better Commentary Series

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Well we are excited to announce the first commentary in the Believe Something Better Commentary Series has been finished. (It is important for you to understand this is not the first volume of the series but rather the first commentary of the series.) The commentary on the Epistle of Jude is finished.

We are posting three things on this blog here today for you to see. The first is the commentary which has recently been finished. We are always open to hearing feedback on anything we post here and you can give us your feedback through e-mail or comments here on the blog. The second thing we’re posting is a set of study notes and an outline for Jude (as you will see the outline is in the commentary as well). These notes are based on the commentary and a set very similar will be made available for each book of the Bible. They are meant to be supplementary to the commentary. These study notes would allow you to have notes available while you study the Bible. The third and final thing we are posting is a complimentary copy of the Epistle of Jude (from the Breath of God Version). This will allow you to refer to this version of the Epistle as you go through the commentary or notes.

These three things are the first in many posts you will see in the future (Lord willing) giving you similar announcements. We do not plan on posting the commentary every time we finish one, but rather just giving a general announcement. We also have the books lumped together to allow for publishing.

We hope you enjoy this and we look forward to seeing feedback from you. Please not this is not the final layout for the commentaries, just an easy layout for it to be presented here on our website for you.

Jude to Come

/ RB May IV / Leave a comment

So the Believe Something Better Commentary Series is about to have its first entry finished. The commentary on Jude is going through its final round of editing then it will be read to be unveiled as the inaugural entry in the series. We will be posting a version of it here under a creative commons license. We also plan on recording it as a free audio teaching here. We plan on putting Jude up here for you to see what things are going to look like.

As far as the rest of the series goes we will only be publishing the audio for free as well as notes and outlines. We plan on having these study aids available for free for everyone to download and use. The commentary series will be available for purchase as an ebook or hardcopy book with all proceeds going back into the ministry to help produce more content and upgrade the website.

All in all this update is here to let everyone know to keep your eyes peeled to see Jude coming out. We have a plan in place as far as getting through the rest of the Bible as well. We look forward to putting this forward soon.